Chelsea easily swept aside the Hong Kong champions Kitchee, to set up a final
of the Barclays Asia Trophy with Aston Villa who earlier defeated Blackburn
Rovers.

Didier Drogba was among the scorers, again, producing a powerful performance to once more given new manager Andre Villas-Boas food for thought as to who his main striker will be come the start of the season.

And, once more, Fernando Torres, who replaced Drogba for the final half hour didn’t score although he did strike the base of the post with a right-foot shot late on. Kitchee struggled throughout to contain Chelsea who are gradually showing signs of working towards being ready for the new campaign.

If there are still issues around the strikers, Chelsea are yet to concede in four pre-season matches under their new manager.

There was a change of shape for Chelsea with Villas-Boas adopting a 4-2-3-1 formation which meant Frank Lampard dropping deeper to be partnered by Yuri Zhirkov in the centre of midfield.

As promised Villas-Boas made changes – nine in all – from the side that started against a Thai Premier League XI on Sunday – although Lampard and captain John Terry were both retained.

Chelsea’s first two efforts came from that new central pairing – with Zhirkov driving a shot into the side-netting and then Lampard, from distance, forcing goalkeeper Wang Zhenpeng into a save and there was certainly a sharper feel to their play.

They should have gone ahead when Didier Drogba’s cross was met by Salomon Kalou only for his header to thud into the turf and strike the cross-bar. Yossi Benayoun failed to turn in the rebound.

Their opponents, the Hong Kong champions Kitchee, were limited and struggled to gain any possession outside their own half.

Peppered with a few Spanish players, they worked hard to contain Chelsea although they were breached when Benayoun dribbled into the penalty area only to be caught by defender Gao Webn. Lampard drove the penalty down the middle of the goal to open the scoring.

The goalkeeper then, just about, beat out Drogba’s fierce free-kick from 30 yards before Kitchee had a first effort on goal with Dani Guerrero’s lob sailing over the crossbar. In added time at the end of the first-half,

Florent Malouda latched onto Lampard’s chip to turn a shot goalwards, only for the ball to be scrambled off the line by a backtracking defender.

It was another backtracking defender who then gifted Chelsea a second goal early in the second-half as Ubay Luzardo Santana – the captain – stretched to reach Malouda’s cross. Under pressure from Drogba, the Spaniard turned the ball into his own net. The goal was credited to Drogba but was scored by the defender.

By now Chelsea were utterly dominant, forcing their opponents deep into their own area with some of the most fluent play they have achieved on this pre-season tour so far with Drogba providing a greater cutting edge as the lone striker. Certainly there was more threat from him.

As expected Villas-Boas rang the changes at the hour point – he said he would do pre-match – which meant Torres being introduced. But, before then,

Chelsea added a third with Malouda once again crossing and, this time, Drogba bravely stooped to head, beating a Kitchee defender to the ball. It was his final touch before being replaced by Torres. Once again they did not feature together.

There was a header wide from Torres, and a failure to anticipate a cross, while another substitute Branislav Ivanovic headed over and sent a free-kick narrowly onto the roof of the net.

It was another replacement, Daniel Sturridge, who provided the pick of the goals – turning away from one opponent and easily beating another before thrashing a shot back across goal and into the net for his first strike of the tour.

Chelsea were able to make seven substitutions having appealed that the rules of the competition – which originally permitted just five – were changed.